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Diphtheria toxin is a single polypeptide chain of 535 amino acids consisting of two subunits linked by disulfide bridges, known as an A-B toxin.Binding to the cell surface of the B subunit (the less stable of the two subunits) allows the A subunit (the more stable part of the protein) to penetrate the host cell.
Some exotoxins act directly at the ribosome to inhibit protein synthesis. An example is Shiga toxin. Other toxins act at elongation factor-2. In the case of the diphtheria toxin, EF2 is ADP-ribosylated and becomes unable to participate in protein elongation, and, so, the cell dies. Pseudomonas exotoxin has a similar action.
The Pseudomonas exotoxin (or exotoxin A) is an exotoxin produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. [1] Vibrio cholerae produces a similar protein called the Cholix toxin 2] It inhibits elongation factor-2. It does so by ADP-ribosylation of EF2 using NAD+. This then causes the elongation of polypeptides to cease.
The prototype of a protein disulfide bond is the two-amino-acid peptide cystine, which is composed of two cysteine amino acids joined by a disulfide bond. The structure of a disulfide bond can be described by its χ ss dihedral angle between the C β −S γ −S γ −C β atoms, which is usually close to ±90°.
They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. [3] The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), [ 4 ] derived from toxic . Toxins can be small molecules , peptides , or proteins that are capable of causing disease on contact with or absorption by body tissues interacting with biological macromolecules such as ...
Anthrax is a disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, a spore-forming, Gram positive, rod-shaped bacterium (Fig. 1).The lethality of the disease is caused by the bacterium's two principal virulence factors: (i) the polyglutamic acid capsule, which is anti-phagocytic, and (ii) the tripartite protein toxin, called anthrax toxin.
SpeB was identified in 1919 as an ectoenzyme secreted by certain strains of streptococci. [11] It was originally studied as two separate toxins, streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin B and streptococcal cysteine proteinase, until it was shown that both proteins were encoded by the speB gene and that the attributed pyrogenic activities were due to contamination by SpeA and SpeC.
It is slightly unusual in that it combines the A and B parts in the same protein chain: the pre-toxin is cleaved into two parts, then the two parts are joined by a disulfide bond. [5] The exotoxin A of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is another example of an AB toxin that targets the eEF2. The "A" part is structually similar to the DT "A" part; the "B ...